Chile Forum

Chile Forum in English for Gringos, Expatriates, and Travelers to Exchange Ideas and Information about Chile, South America. For more than a decade, the Chile Forum has been the center for expats to share their collective knowledge and experience about living in Chile. The Chile Forum is a free community service brought to you by the law office of Spencer Global.

canuck44 wrote:. Her parents live in Chile and so does her brother. She trusts them all.

So why in God's name you bother to come to a forum when you have close relatives that can easily do the search? Have you ever stop to think that going thru the "grape vine" first would be what makes more sense? It just shows how the so called "generation X" is the brain dead lazy asses generation in my book!

I'm from the generation of common sense, wisdom and unfiltered answers. I sayeth as I seeth.

canuck44 wrote:
My question is, how do we find out if my wife owns any property in Chile?

Have someone that you trust in Chile ( I know, will be a hard task) to go diligently to check at CONSERVADOR DE BIENES RAICES with her RUT# in the area where supposedly the property is if it shows up there. If it doesn't it could be only a bluff.

In another thread active a few years ago we discussed the (lack of) veracity (accuracy, reliability) of many property transfer and ownership documents.
Amongst them, I commented that a relative of my wife with a lot of experience finding, buying and developing real estate in the Santiago area commented that it is not uncommon for there to be errors (intentional and unintentional) in property transfer and ownership documents, even of apartments in Santiago (which you would except to be the more precise than any other).

No idea what happened, but when buying I've seen the the rules a little loose, but they tighten when you sell and the buying party wants the owner in front of a Chilean Official to witness their signature, have a lawyer find out if your wife owns anything and get a % of the sale's price in exchange for cooperation, of course your cash is up front..........

nwdiver wrote:No idea what happened, but when buying I've seen the the rules a little loose, but they tighten when you sell and the buying party wants the owner in front of a Chilean Official to witness their signature, have a lawyer find out if your wife owns anything and get a % of the sale's price in exchange for cooperation, of course your cash is up front..........

You can not sell or transfer a property in Chile, without a notary public. Period. It is not valid sale. That is apart from a whole bunch of other formalities required to have a valid property transfer.

In a common law country, people can transfer their interest in a property on the back of napkin over lunch. Not in Chile. It regularly get's foreigners from common law countries in to trouble, because people think they have a valid transfer just signing any old contract (e.g. the gult's gulch expat scam from a few years back).

Anyone that tells you don't need a notary public to buy / sell a property in Chile, is scamming you or is just totally ignorant of the process (which is functionally equivalent).